By The Landlord
“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” – George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four
“Human nature is always interesting, Sir Henry. And it's curious to see how certain types always tend to act in exactly the same way.” – Agatha Christie, The Thirteen Problems
“I was a thirteen-year-old boy for thirty years.” – Mickey Rooney
Triskaidekaphobia – from the Ancient Greek? Friggatriskaidekaphobia – from Old Norse? These two words might certainly boost your pub-quiz word power, or just sound like you're choking on a packet of salted nuts, but really they are just a fancy way of expressing a fear of the number 13. Add in a Friday, which occurs this week, and following the one in February, this Friday 13th March for the second month in a row, and so you might even add in a dash of paraskevidekatriaphobia.
Meanwhile, though for me there’s no phobia, and the time of this piece launching was 13.13 hrs exactly in the UK.
I’m not in the least superstitious, but thirteen is a culturally potent number, one that has fuelled fears and unlucky (and other more positive) associations for centuries. So this week, however the number comes – as a name, place, amount, date, age or more – as long as appears prominently in song lyrics or titles or plays a prominent role (and perhaps even for those attuned to the technical side where it may involve a specific number of notes or a rhythm or time signature) then thirteen, in all ways, most definitely counts.
And across history, in social trends, religion or the personal feelings, this big number recurs in least 13 contexts, with dinner as a recurring them, and all of which might come in song:
1) It has Christian connection from the Biblical Last Supper scene in which Judas, the disciple who betrayed Jesus, was apparently the 13th to sit at the table. But who ultimately paid the bill? And did pre-Easter Good Friday also fall on the 13th?
2) There is also a Norse myth about 12 gods having a dinner party in Valhalla at which the trickster god Loki, who was not invited, arrived as the 13th guest, and arranged for Höðr, the blind son of Odin, to shoot Balder (or Baldr/Baldur), another son of Odin, but goddess Frigg (hence the phobia word) with a mistletoe-tipped arrow or spear, killing him. The number aspect of it, may or may not have been the point, and perhaps could have been mere embellishment retrofitted for the superstition and the story.
Unlucky dinnerOdin's last words to Baldr (1908) by W. G. Collingwood
18th century Tarot card 13 of Death. Death at least to any career as an illustrator
3) Then there's a baker's dozen, which comes from 13th century England and a 1266 law passed by King Henry III that strictly regulated the weight of bread, forcing bakers to add in an extra loaf or bun to avoid ripping off customers with smaller weighted bakes. Unlucky for the baker's who faced risk of fines or beatings, it's also called the devil's dozen, but in a more modern context is associated with dodgy dealings and calculations.
4) Where does the Friday aspect come in? On that 13th day of October 1307, the arrest of the Knights Templar was ordered by Philip IV of France, adding to the number's established unluckiness with that day itself. The incorrect idea that their arrest was related to the phobias surrounding Friday the 13th was invented early in the 21st century and popularized by the novel The Da Vinci Code. The Friday fright idea also brought about the famous horror movie franchise
5) Tarot card games have been in circulation since at least around 1450 with one of the bad-news trump cards representing Death, and is numbered 13 in several variants. What does it all mean? Perhaps whatever you decide it does. The end? The beginning? How often it does it not augur bad news?
6) From playing cards to a far bigger flip in reality, the Apollo 13 Moon mission was launched on 11th April 1970 but had an oxygen tank explosion on 13th April. However, somehow the crew returned safely to Earth on 17th April. It gave rise to Ron Howard's 1995 film about the catastrophic “Houston, we have a problem” explosion of a space capsule carrying Captain Jim Lovell (starring Tom Hanks), and lunar module pilot Fred Haize (Bill Paxton).
7) The number is also seen as unlucky for millions in a financial situation. In 1989 there was a stock market crash (the Friday the 13th mini-crash) on 13th October, also known as Black Friday, when a $6.75 billion leveraged buyout deal for UAL Corporation, the parent company of United Airlines, fell through and helped trigger the collapse of the junk bond market. It also followed Black Monday on 19th October 1987, and helped trigger the 1990s recession. It's a pattern that's since repeated of course...
Houston we had a problem … Apollo 13 on 13th April 1970
8) Talking of high-level crashes, while there is indeed a famous high level Texan rock band fronted by Roky Erickson inspired by the name, many tall buildings try to avoid having a 13th floor, replacing it with mezzanines or levels not accessible via elevator.
9) Some airlines also omit having a row 13 on their planes, avoiding the awkwardness of those who do not wish to sit in them. Some hotels avoid a room 13 or floor 13. Conversely Friday 13th is often, for those who don't worry about such things a cheaper day to travel.
10) But some have tried to counteract this fear of 13 and other superstitions. In 1881, a group of New Yorkers, led by US Civil War veteran Captain William Fowler formed a dinner cabaret club, which they called the Thirteen Club. At the first meeting, on 13th January 1881, at 8:13 p.m., thirteen people sat down to dine in Room 13 of the venue. The guests walked under a ladder to enter the room and were seated among piles of spilled salt. Many so-called Thirteen Clubs sprang up all over North America over the next 45 years and included future president included five future US presidents, from Chester A. Arthur to Theodore Roosevelt. A such occasions, members would engage in all sorts of jolly japes such as walking under ladders and offering drinks to skeletons and skulls, as well as holding their glasses up to toast donkeys led in to visit them by the dinner table (a practice seen as unlucky in Sardinia). Any excuse for a good old knees up.
A Thirteen Club of the late 19th century
11) Thirteen is also a formative step out of childhood into adulthood via the troubled teenage years, as puberty takes hold and augurs all sorts of hormonal-related angst. What greater fuel for songwriting than that?
12) The age of 13 is seen significant for many musicians and performers. Judy Garland was already quite rapidly heading for fame when she signed with MGM in 1935 when she was aged 13. It wasn't easy, she recounts: "From the time I was thirteen, there was a constant struggle between MGM and me - whether or not to eat, how much to eat, what to eat. I remember this more vividly than anything else about my childhood."
"When I was thirteen I only wanted to be a drummer," chips in Ringo Starr.
Louis Armstrong is also here, focusing in on that key age in his life. "I do believe that my whole success goes back to that time I was arrested as a wayward boy at the age of thirteen. Because then I had to quit running around and began to learn something. Most of all, I began to learn music."
13) But for some, the number is nothing but a lucky charm, not least a singer-songwriter has done really quite well for herself. Taylor Swift, who considers 13 very significant in her life, has incorporated it into many of her songs. She was born on December 13, 1989 and turned 13 on Friday the 13th, her first no 1 song has a 13-second intro, her debut album went gold in 13 weeks and when she won her first award, she was in the 13th seat, row, or section, a trend she claims has continued. She even marks her hand with the number at concerts.
Taylor Swift marks her favourite number on her hand before performing
But then again, many thirteens come and go and absolutely nothing of significance happens at all. No horror film plots, no disasters, at least not more than are already happening in the world. I expect this latest Friday 13th to just be the same as any other, but the point is, not if it really does have significance in reality but how it is perceived and portrayed in society, culture and for our purposes - song.
So now it's time to take things to the 13th level, with your suggestion connected to that number. Who will take it on? It’s the very lucky tincanman! The bell tolls for final nominations at 11pm UK time on Monday, for playlists published next week.
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